"Car Talk is a small slice of the week," Keillor said. "People love those voices, that Boston honk, and the way they laugh, it's so un-public radio."

Keillor also is backing away from talk of retiring in 2013. He told the Times media critic James Rainey that he wants to find a replacement host but has no timetable. "I see a lot of people who could do this," Keillor said. "The problem is persuading managers of public radio stations [to accept a new host]. And like managers everywhere, they tend to be very conservative. That is our conflict."

Keillor also envisions a big folk festival in St. Paul, Minn., for the show’s 40th-anniversary celebration in 2014.